Welcome to March Madness! RowThree style. We’ve got four divisions of contenders looking to advance to the next round. It’s up to you to decide who advances. Look through each bracket within all four divisions and make your choice. After a few days the polls will close and we’ll see who advances to the next round. There can be only one victor. 
See the FULL BRACKET
See the CONSOLATION BRACKET
SCHEDULE (begins – ends):
Round 1: 3/9 – 3/13
Round 2: 3/14 – 3/18
Round 3: 3/19 – 3/23
Round 4: 3/24 – 3/27
Round 5: 3/28 – 3/30
Round 6: 3/31 – 4/1
A couple of RULES and notes. First, there’s no way to track voting. So yes, you could get away with voting 100 times if you wanted to. But I do have final say here and if I see anything that looks fishy (e.g. a 15 seed getting 650 more votes than a 2 seed) I may step in. We’re going by the honor system here and it would probably be more fun to see where this little experiment goes naturally and if everyone is honest. That said, there is a comment section below so feel free to sound off your picks publicly and try to lobby some votes in your favor. Tell us why you think Anthony Mann should upset Martin Scorsese. Who knows what might happen here? I’m actually kind of excited to find out!
Second, these directors were picked and seeded more or less arbitrarily by yours truly. I’m aware that there are a ton of other directors out there and that these seeds may appear unfair or strange to some people. By all means leave those thoughts in the comment section, but just know that this was sort of an off the cuff deal anyway and not to be taken all that seriously. These seeds do not necessarily reflect my opinions or that of any of the staff at RowThree. But just off the top of our heads it was easy to come up with a fairly prolific group of guys and seed them in some sort of reasonable order based on filmography, popularity, notoriety, critical acclaim, etc. Note: there is a fifth set of brackets we’re calling the Consolation Division. It’s a group of 16 directors we really wanted to see compete but weren’t quite “worthy” of the big dance.
Enough of that noise, let the games begin!
some tough match-ups there like Spielberg vs Nolan. Cool idea Andrew
God – Altman vs The Coens – brutal.
that one was easy.
Love the idea though, can’t wait to see how the voting goes by the end.
You’d think I couldn’t stand an idea like this, but I couldn’t help myself from voting. Could be fun!
if Coens win, it is rigged.
Very cool idea, Andrew! Hardest for me this round were Coen vs. Altman (ARGH), Bergman vs. Almodovar (I respect Bergman more, but I enjoy Almodovar more), Antonioni vs. Leone (gotta go with spaghetti westerns, though), and Lang vs. Truffaut (both Metropolis and 400 Blows are in my top 20 films of all time). And Scorsese vs. Anthony Mann wasn’t a hard choice, Scorsese all the way, but it kind of sucks that Mann will likely be out of the running so quickly. He’s pretty awesome and ought to be more widely known.
I love that Soderbergh is holding his own against Welles!
the hardest pairing for me is Werner Herzog vs. Spike Lee. It kills me, but Lee wins.
Andrew, is there a way to see the results without voting again? Or will it show me the results when I’m back on the same computer/browser I voted on?
No I think you only get to see it the one time after you vote.
it’s all done through Google docs, so maybe there is a way to make the results public but not the actual poll public. I’ll check.
Bergman vs. Almodovar….you’re killing me!
Toughest Choice was Antonioni vs. Leone. Malick vs. Cronenberg (no fair!) and Lumet vs. Ford — sure Ford is the no brainer, but Damn, if Lumet doesn’t have some whopper of films. Surprised not to see John Frankenheimer or Bertollucci on the poll!
Where is PT? Unless I am missing something I think he deserves to be in one of these brackets. Overall great idea and very fun to fill out
Yeah some of these choices will make you pull your hair out. And it’s only going to get tougher… Coens vs Hitchcock in the next probably. And the Final Four should be interesting to see who gets there.
not to nitpick, but Tom is right, PT ought to have made the cut over Cameron Crowe
Yeah, there is a distinct lack of Andersons – No P.T., Wes, OR P.W.S. :p Still, there are so many awesome directors out there, props to the ones you chose.
TeamAltman
enjoyed voting against Altman and Malick a little too much.
Malick vs. Cronenberg (no fair!)
Agree!
suspicious absence of Gus Van Sant and Baumbach. hmmmm.
Great idea, Andrew. Nobody’s calling a winner yet? Methinks Hitch has it locked up.
“Coens vs Hitchcock in the next probably.”
God damn it!
Coens vs. Hitchcock? *shoots self*
not to worry, it will be Altman vs. Hitchcock
VOTING IS CLOSED FOR ROUND ONE.
Drop by after midnight tonight for round TWO!
I love Soderberg as much as the next guy, but the unwashed masses have decreed he’s a better director than Orson Welles? My God!
Not necessarily better, but maybe just favorite. Beethoven was a better composer, but I would vote for Bach if put to this sort of test.
How does Rowthree explain Tim Burton!
Bergman should win this EASY
Some more tough decisions. Kurosawa vs Miyazaki was hardest for me. Kurosawa probably deserves to win, but I’ve got a huge soft spot for Miyazaki and I’ve never seen a film of his that I’ve not loved.
I’m worried about the current close race between Leone and Fellini. I’ve never been a huge Fellini fan and I’ll be devastated if Leone bows out at such an early stage.
Herzog vs Lynch… that will be tight.
I voted Fellini: high art trumps low art.